


Breathe In, Breathe Out

by skittenninja



Series: Whumptober 2020 [13]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Drowning, Gen, Hurt Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Near Death Experiences, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27000388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skittenninja/pseuds/skittenninja
Summary: Whumptober 2020 Day 13: Another battle, and another fall into the ocean for Hiccup. After he made it out relatively unscathed, it was easy to assume that he was in the clear. That is, until Hiccup starts to feel like he's drowning hours after the fact.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Series: Whumptober 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949905
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	Breathe In, Breathe Out

Hiccup wasn’t exactly unused to falling into open water from great heights.

It just so happened that this time, it went horribly wrong in a way none of them expected.

In hindsight, Hiccup blamed himself for not bothering to go to Gothi after the fall happened. They’d even flown back to Berk after the battle, giving him an easy opportunity to do so, but the thought never even crossed his mind.

This led to complications later on.

It started when Hiccup was out by the docks with Astrid and his father, gathering intel about hunters’ ships that some inbound traders claimed to have seen not too far west from Berk. This was clearly important information, a discussion Hiccup needed to be present for, but as the conversation dragged on, he felt himself grow gradually more tired. It didn’t help that his tongue seemed to be tying itself into a knot, becoming heavier in his mouth and making it increasingly difficult to talk. He tried to play it off by letting the others carry the conversation, trying to indicate that he was at least half-listening through facial cues, but this just caused Astrid to catch on quicker.

He didn’t even see her begin to step aside, just felt her hand on his arm as she gently led him away from talk of weapons and war. Instinctively, Hiccup tried to follow, but the dock moved out from under his foot and nearly rushed up to his face. The world seemed to invert itself for a moment, direction and objects blurring together as Hiccup fell towards something he couldn’t see.

Then Astrid caught him, and the world seemed to stabilize for a moment.

When Hiccup looked in the direction he believed was up, he saw Astrid’s face looking down at him with deep concern. Her lips were moving, but she wasn’t saying anything. Or maybe she was. It was impossible to tell, really.

The group of people they’d just tried to leave, including his father, seemed to notice Hiccup’s almost-tumble. They stared at him with a similar expression to Astrid, exchanging nervous glances. His father was talking, he thought, but it was hard to understand what he was saying. His brain discarded words in the same way it had discarded direction.

Astrid looked at his father, who strode over to the two and put a hand on Hiccup’s shoulders. It took about three tries before Hiccup actually heard his own name being said.

“Sorry, what?” He asked, barely able to force the words out of his mouth. The world was swaying beneath his feet, as if they were on a ship and not the dock, and even just turning his head to look at his father made him feel ill.

“I asked if you were feeling alright,” Stoick repeated, though his troubled countenance gave away that he’d already found his answer in Hiccup’s behaviour. “That was a harsh fall you took earlier. Are you sure you didn’t…”

Hiccup didn’t catch the end of the question, becoming aware of the pain brimming in his chest. Had that always been there? When had that started? He couldn’t remember.

He looked in the direction he thought was down, but he didn’t find the wood of the dock anymore, nor could did he find the blue of the sky. He was on grass now, leaning against someone. They were trying to help him walk, he thought, though he didn’t know where they were going.

Hiccup tried to mutter something about slowing down, not sure if the words even left his brain. Not only was it hard to talk, it was getting harder and harder to breathe, the tightness in his chest closing in on him with no remorse.

Gods, he was so tired. The feeling somehow cut through the pain, the lack of air in his lungs, the way the world seemed to lose all sense of direction. It settled deep in Hiccup’s bones, filling him with an exhaustion beyond anything he’d ever felt. His body screamed at him to just lie down and sleep, even through everything else, but a voice at the back of his muddled mind was screaming right back at him, telling him not to.

He was looking at Astrid again. She was looking at him, scared.

“-with me, okay?” She asked, and Hiccup was barely able to catch the end of the sentence, concentration nearly impossible in his condition.

The only thing he could think to say was her name, but even that came out slurred and clumsily thanks to the detached feeling in his mouth and the burning in his chest and lungs.

Something swooped down from the sky, and Hiccup could vaguely recognize Stormfly’s colours as she landed in front of them. Astrid had to help Hiccup onto the dragon’s back, both of them knowing Hiccup would have fallen off if he’d tried alone.

They took off, and it felt far too fast, a wave of nausea hitting Hiccup full force along with the wind. Normally, he loved flying, but trying to move on the ground had been bad enough. Up in the air, the lack of direction was even worse, endless blue and white blending together and causing Hiccup to feel like he was falling even when he was sitting still.

Someone was holding him tight. He couldn’t remember who.

Where were they again?

A horrible cough wracked Hiccup’s body, and just like that, he couldn’t stop. Something had set his lungs on fire and it felt like he was trying to eject the smoke from them. He was sure he was going to burn alive from the inside out, the taste of smoke on tongue and in his nose. It fizzled and faded in and out in his senses, along with almost everything else, and a fearful but distant part of him was terrified of feeling so disconnected from reality.

The only constant thing that Hiccup could feel was the pain that afflicted his body, the agony trapped in his chest as he coughed and gasped for air, like his lungs were filling with more and more water that didn’t exist.

Like he was still trapped, sinking to the bottom of the ocean.


End file.
